“Wittgenstein’s Nephew- A Novel” by Thomas Bernhard

This is more memoir than novel, if the author is to be believed. Bernhard was friends with Ludwig’s nephew, Paul. The book starts out when both are in the hospital, Bernhard in the pulmonary ward, recovering from a lung operation, and Wittgenstein in the mental ward, recovering from one of his many bouts with madness. It concludes at Wittgenstein’s death, with the author having missed the funeral and, as yet, still refusing to go to his friend’s gravesite. It is a chronicle of a friendship, with biting commentary on Viennese society, class, literature, and culture. It is laugh out loud funny at points, but has a haunting air of depression throughout. Wittgenstein seems a man lost in his age. He gradually loses his wealth and his aristocratic manner turns from eccentric to pathetic as time passes him by. Bernhard’s friendship is real, but aloof. He sees Wittgenstein as a character, as perhaps any good writer would. As Bernhard relates of his friend, “his head was full of opera, and as his life became progressively more dreadful- with increasing rapidity during his latter years- it too became an opera, a grand opera of course, which naturally had a tragic ending.”